Right in the middle between Shelter and Les Voyages de L'âme - that's where Kodama puts itself. That should be what most people will come here to find out, so I'll say it right away. After Shelter's, let's say, mediocre reception - making a sharp turn to the dreampop-realm of shoegaze, devoid of almost all black metal influences, the one thing we fans have been asking ourselves is: was Shelter a one-off or is Neige going full-on Opeth on us? I can tell you, both happily and sadly to a certain degree, it is neither.

I'm liking this a lot. Much, much better than the previous two. And it's not just a matter of Neige's sreaming vocals - the music is simply more interesting here. Also, 42 minutes is a perfect timing for this type of music.

This album was a step back into the more familiar Alcest sound after the somewhat lackluster Shelter album. It's sort of a nice blend of both sounds though as well as being different in a couple ways fundamentally. First there are much less vocals overall, instead having a majority of instrumental sections, and second there are much less effects used on the vocals and most of the instruments as well which gives the album an overall more organic sound. I found Kodama to be missing something every time I listened through it however because by the end I was always getting into it right when it was over and it felt like it needed at least one more song in it. Because of this I bothered to acquire and add the bonus song to it and, while being only instrumental, I think it provides a more complete feeling to the album especially if you make your own order to listen to the songs in. There wasn't anything that really stood out about this album other than it was simply enjoyable throughout in the good old Alcest way. If you want more decent/good Alcest, this is it but don't expect anything groundbreaking.